The 90-year-old, two-metre high shell-back therefore qualifies as a protected species and deserving of even more care and comfort than that accorded other rare giants, such as the colossal squid and the giant tube worm.

But the AFL's Greater Western Sydney Giants are an even more exotic beast, judging from the protection they receive from that vile enemy, the media.

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Week after week, the opposition scores twice their number of points, yet the media describes these abysmal defeats as a ''giant effort'', ''brave performance'' or ''gallant''.

Sure, the team is very young, consisting of the best draft choices in the nation and coached by a man, Kevin Sheedy, who is described in terms usually reserved for Albert Einstein.

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But when is someone going to point out the Giants' efforts in remaining competitive until half-time is not good enough?

Just as Lonesome George's ancestors liked to island hop, the Giants have abandoned their Blacktown base for Sydney Olympic Park. This received very little attention in the media, which is obviously responding to the Giants' open-door policy.

To be fair, there are sensible reasons for their deserting Blacktown.

The modern footballer is, in his own way, a coddled creature. He likes all his training demands at the one location. Collingwood, Carlton, the Broncos, Storm and Titans have centres of excellence, where players can train, be massaged, watch videos, treat injuries, swim and answer pesky media inquiries in the one complex.

The GWS player in the pre-season was spending up to four hours travelling between venues for training and their luxury resort in the inner west.

By relocating to Sydney Olympic Park as their base for training and playing, they are eight minutes' drive to their Breakfast Point villas, and closer to their upper middle-class supporter base in the Hills district.

It makes these young, high draft choice players less vulnerable to being lured back to Melbourne at the end of this season.

It's not known how much money has been spent preserving the habitat of the Galapagos giant tortoise but considerable taxpayers' dollars have been devoted to the Giants.

The NSW government spent $15 million on developing the Blacktown precinct for a second AFL team and cricket. It also allocated $45 million for the upgrading of the Sydney Showground to make it suitable for Australian football.

According to reports in July 2008, Blacktown council siphoned off its taxpayer-provided sports budget for the facility, described as a $27.5 million project.

The AFL and cricket provided $2,875,000 and with the NSW government tipping in $15 million, presumably Blacktown council provided the rest.

On the eve of the Giants' first home game at the renamed Sydney Showground, Skoda Stadium, the federal government announced it would contribute $2 million to facilities at Sydney Olympic Park.

A press release from the Minister for Sport, Kate Lundy, announced the funds would be allocated to ''an elite-standard AFL training oval and community sports field'', while ''the AFL and the GWS Giants will build a multicultural community education centre (MCEC), which will feature a 75-person theatrette, dedicated classroom and community meeting rooms''.

The ACT government has also given the Giants $26 million over 10 years to play four games a year in Canberra, while Wagga Wagga council will pay $300,000 over three years for pre-season games.

The AFL insists they haven't abandoned Blacktown, pointing out it will be used as a base for development where they claim to spend $4 million a year.

They will also play an additional televised pre-season game there, run their elite junior competitions plus train there for 12 sessions a year.

Just as scientists are desperately searching the Galapagos Islands to find a mate for Lonesome George in order to perpetuate the species, the AFL's plan in having two Sydney teams was to foster the code in Australia's biggest city.

The Swans have access to the harbour and the city, something the people of Sydney's west have been travelling to for 70 years.

They won't welcome the view the Giants had to leave Blacktown because the players were spending too much time in cars.

Similarly, Lonesome George has rejected the Volcan Wolf tortoise and those other floozy tortoises marine scientists have paraded for him to reproduce with.

The artificially created mating of the now inner west Giants with the Swans might have a similar fate, particularly in stimulating interest in Australian football in Sydney's greater west, a region long taken for granted.